Part 330: High Tension

A mountain of iron nails pierces the left half of her face.

Despite the damage that would instantly extinguish consciousness in an ordinary person, Nana Natsu remained lucid.

—Tension... raise it, raise it, raise it, raise it...!

Coloring her very being to the absolute limit with joyous fervor.

The "High Tension" skill, unique to the "playboy" type, allowed her to manipulate her own mental state.

As a result, pain, suffering, and all anxieties about the future vanished, leaving only the enjoyable aspects of this world visible.

Even the fact that she was fighting a mysterious enemy in this incomprehensible place.

Or that Ran, injured due to her own mistake, lay collapsed beside her.

Everything in this world seemed like a malicious joke, the entire world enveloped in a golden shimmer.

"Hihihi... haha..."

With this, Nanaomi Nezu, finally freed from all the sorrow of suffering realms, barely managed to keep control of the "Balloon Bomb."

Pointing her right index finger straight at Kenji,

"Encircle... that damn... bastard...!"

She issued commands to the mindless balloons.

The enemy likely assumed that if they stole our consciousness, they'd be able to let go of control over the "Balloon," but that won't happen. I can't just fall here, helpless.

『Muh』

Hama da Kensuke stared blankly at Nana Miya, who was showing unexpected persistence,

『What's this? Did you think I'd be beaten like this...?...To me, this feels like a toy for kids』

「……ッ」

When the man finished speaking, the bomb was completely destroyed from within by liquidized nails, turning into a gooey mess.

The bombs, weak and balloon-like, fell one by one to the ground, squashing and smearing across the hallway.

"Ku… so…?"

Even though he was ignoring the pain thanks to Hyper-Tension, his left side had still been utterly torn apart.

His left leg, numb like a rubber doll, collapsed weakly to his knee.

Hamaida Kensuke approached slowly, step by step, toward him.

In his hand was the handgun that Mayi had given to her allies.

—...?

Why? Who took that gun? Was it stolen?

A few questions surfaced and vanished, but only one mattered now.

It seemed clear that the man intended to use it to deliver the final blow.

Sorry... Maii...

Saying it through clenched teeth, he meets the gun's barrel with his eyes.

Kenji had carefully aimed, closing in to point-blank range.

"The bones of a 'player' are tough, so... you have to shoot straight through the eye to kill them. Really, you're quite the troublesome potato sprout, aren't you?"

This is it.

I absolutely can't... die now.

It was at that very moment.

Without realizing it, Ran, who had crawled to Nanami’s feet, pulled something out of her pocket—

“Think I’ll let you… live, you idiot!?”

It appeared to be a miniature model of a single-family home.

With a forceful slam, Ran placed it down, as if manifesting the universal dream of “a house like this, someday,” made real.

What now? The structure that had only looked like a model was suddenly beginning to grow at an incredible speed.

"——Wha!?"

Kenji, completely caught off guard, was swept up and blown away by it.

Ran's single-family home shattered through the mall's ceiling, crushed surrounding shops, and came to a stop, blocking the entire corridor.

"This...!"

"An achievement reward for the 'Portable Mini Home'! But more importantly, use that Healing Magic...!"

Even as she spoke, Ran was casting Healing Magic on her own body.

Yet Nanami just stared at it blankly...

"Eh, eh, eh? What are you doing? You remember, Healing Magic, right?"

"No, I'm fine. I can't use it."

"You... don't remember Healing Magic...?"

Ran widened her eyes in shock,

"Even though you're level 50 or higher?"

"All of this... is just part of the 'Playboy' job's traits..."

Special jobs often come with significant drawbacks just for obtaining them.

The downside of the 'Playboy' job was that you could no longer freely use any magic you'd learned before.

"Just call for help already. This house isn't built just to barricade, is it? It'll be broken through in no time."

"I-I can't!"

Frowning in confusion, wondering why it wouldn't open, I suddenly realized it probably sounded like "I can't."

"Because—Nanami-san, you're pregnant, aren't you?"

"...Huh. Where did you—"

"Yesterday morning! After that 'zombie' scare, I overheard you talking to Mayoi-san... I just happened to hear it..."

"Oh, I see."

Awkward, I look away.

It was the worst possible moment.

No one laughs at a pregnant woman's jokes.

Even my best punchline gets judged through a biased lens just because I'm pregnant.

Trying to eat a tiny live cockroach? "The baby in my belly," they say.

I feel nauseous.

"Sorry... can you please keep this to yourself?"

"Uh... yeah."

Lan furrows her brows into a frown,

"But if Nanami dies here, well, Nanami herself might be fine, but the child in her belly..."

Don't bother saying that....Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway.

That was the moment.

From a Dutch house used as a barricade, two loud thuds echoed.

It seems like Hamada intends to smash through the wall by force, if necessary, just to finish us off.

Ugh. Goodbye, my dream of living alone.

"Never mind that... what do we do?"

"There's no choice but to fight—wait, huh? What's that?"

Following RAN's questioning glance, I turned to look, and a strange man was rushing toward us from the opposite end of the corridor.

A peculiar man clad entirely in silver armor, draped in a crimson cloak.

The metallic boots scraped against the floor, producing a harsh, grating sound that grated on the ears.

For a split second, the man seemed like a rookie enemy, but then he waved his right hand frantically and shouted,

"Sorry! I was just running to the bathroom and got held up!"